Sister

My first memory of you

Isn’t even a memory now

But a photograph of a memory

A young girl knitting 

On top of commotion 

Of sibling distraction

What thoughts bending 

The yarn of your young mind

Wovenness before unraveling

You never stopping

Creating the fabric of a life 

Again, and again

The children, the drawings, the losses

Never detering your inner nature

Always the quiet voice marching

Always giving the next gift of you

Heralding the constant deprivation of 

Riches not shared by others

What was that painting that hung 

In little den where grandfather

Couldn’t see through hazy smoke

The full arc of your existence 

Propelling now those following after you

With promise of new creation